After an appearance in Marlins Park on Monday, Floridians can expect to see a lot more of Vice President Joe Biden, as his boss, President Barack Obama, continues to engage in a tight battle with former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts to win the state's 29 Electoral College votes in November.
But the vice president is not exactly a favorite in the Sunshine State.
In an interview with Michael Sherer of Time Magazine, released online last Thursday, Biden said he would be focusing on some of the states that appear up for grabs in November, of which Florida has the most electoral votes.
"I've been assigned six states, Biden said. Pennsylvania, my home state; Ohio, Iowa, believe it or not, New Hampshire, Florida.
The vice president added that he would also be assigned two other states to focus on. Now they are talking about assigning me either Virginia, Nevada or North Carolina, he said.
Bidens latest effort to keep the Sunshine State in Obamas column was on Monday when he spoke at Marlins Park for a graduation event for students at Cypress Bay High School in Weston -- the largest high school in Broward County.
While Biden has been on the national political stage since his Delaware election to the U.S. Senate back in 1972 and launched two bids for the presidency, he has never faced Florida voters on his own. Bidens bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1988 election cycle imploded before the Iowa caucus as the candidate faced accusations about plagiarizing a speech from British politician Neil Kinnock and about exaggerating his academic record. Biden made a second attempt for the Democratic nomination in 2008 but bowed out after finishing in fifth place in Iowa, taking less than 1 percent in the Hawkeye State despite a series of strong debate performances.
A poll of registered voters in the Sunshine State from Quinnipiac University, released in the later half of May, shows that Floridians are not exactly fond of Biden. While 21 percent of those surveyed say they have not heard enough about Biden to have an opinion of him, the vice president is upside down in the Sunshine State with 36 percent holding a favorable opinion of him while 42 percent see him unfavorably. In a poll of Floridians taken by Quinnipiac in December 2011, Biden did slightly better with 37 percent holding a favorable view of him while 40 percent saw him as unfavorable.
Biden does well among fellow Democrats, according to the poll, with 72 percent seeing him in a favorable light while only 8 percent view him unfavorably -- reasons enough for the Obama team to send him to rally the base in Florida like he did back in October when he spoke to the state Democratic convention at Walt Disney World. While its no surprise that Biden flops with Republicans in Florida -- only 7 percent see him favorably while 76 percent view him unfavorably -- the vice president is upside down with independents. Less than a third of independents surveyed in Florida -- 32 percent -- have a favorable view of Biden while 41 percent see him unfavorably.
While Biden, the first Catholic in American history to serve as vice president, has been the Obama White Houses ambassador to white working-class voters, the poll shows that Floridians divide on race over how they view him. A majority of whites surveyed -- 51 percent -- view Biden as unfavorable while only 30 percent see him in a favorable light. Biden does much better with black Florida voters, with 73 percent seeing him as favorable while 6 percent see him as unfavorable. While 35 percent of Hispanic voters surveyed say they have not heard enough about Biden to have an opinion of him, the rest divide evenly -- 32 percent see him favorably and the same percentage view him unfavorably.
Biden also inspires something of a gender gap in the poll. While 31 percent of men see Biden as favorable, 48 percent view him as unfavorable. Biden does better with women in the poll, with 40 percent seeing him in a favorable light and 38 percent holding an unfavorable view of him.
The poll of 1,722 registered Florida voters was taken from May 15-21 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
